Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-04-22

Brooklyn around whom are thrown no De-
nign and heavenly and Christian IN
fuences? It is o tremendous question:,
what is TO become of the destitute children
of these cities? We must either act on
them orthey will act on us. We will either
Christianize them or they will heathenize
us. 1t is a question not more for the
Christian than for the philanthropist and
The statesman. Oh, if we could have all
these little ones gathered together, what q
scene of hunger and w~retchedness
rags and sin and trouble and darkness! II
we could see those little feet on the broad
road to death, which through Christian
charity ought to be pressing the mar
row path of life; if we could hear those
voices in %blasphemy, which ought to be
singing the praises of God; if we could see
those little hearts, which at that age ought
not to be soiled with one unclean thought,
becoming the sewers for every abomina-
ton; if We could see those suffering little
ones sacrificed on the altar of every
ubiquitous passion and baptized with ire
from the lava of the pit we would recoil,
CRYING out: "Avaunt. thou dream of hell"
They are not always going to be children:
They are coming up to be the men n
women of this country. That spark o.
iniquity that might nov be put out with
one drop of the water of life will become
the c%onhagration of every green thing that
God ever planted in the soul. That which
ought to have been a temple of the Holy
Ghost will become q scared and blistered
ruin-every light quenched and every altar
in the dust. That petty thief, who slips
into your store and takes a yard OF cloth
from your counter will become the high
wayman of the forest, or the burglar at
midnight, picking the lock of your money
safe and blowing up your store to hide the
villany. A great army, with staggering
step, and bloodshot eye and drunken boot,
they are coming on-gathering recruits
from every grog shop and den of infamy
in the land-to take the ballot box and
hurrah at the elections. The hard knuckled
fist of rufianism will have more power
Than the gentle hand of intelligence and
sobricty. Men, bloated, and with the
signature of sin burned in from the top OF
The forehead to the bottom Of the chin,
will look honest men out of countenance.
Moral corpses, which ought to be buried
100 feet deep to keep them from poisoning
the air, will rot in the face Of the sun at
monday. Industry in her plain frock will
be unappreciated, while thousands of men
will wander around in idleness. with their
hands on their lips, saying: "The world
owes us a living" o, what o tremendous
pONoI lutTc 10 III Au1luAG Mucu uucuUCdIOu
and unrestrained and unbalanced it goes
on concentrating and deepening and wide
ening and gathering momentum until it
swings ahead with a very triumph Of desc
lation, drowning like surges. scorching like
flames, crushing like rocks! What are you
going to do with this abandoned popula-
ton of the streets? Will you gather them
in your churches? It is not the wig Of
your Heavenly Father that one OF these
little ones should perish. If you have ten
respectable children in your class, gather
in ten that are not respectable. If in your
Bible class there be twenty young men who
have come from Christian homes ard ele-
giant surroundings, let those twenty young
men 60 out and gather in twenty more of
the young men of the city who are lost to
God and lost to society. This outside
population, unless educated and restrained,
Years ago atNew Orleans, when the cholera
was raging fearfully, a steamboat put out
just before nightfall crowded with pas
sengers who were trying to escape from
the pestilence. After the boat had been
out little while the engineer fell with the
cholera. The captain in CONSERVATION
went down among the passengers and
asked: els there any one here who knows
anything about engineering?' A swarthy
man replied: 81 am an engineer" ''Well,
said the captain, 81 would be very glad if
you would take charge of this boat" The
man went to the engine. The steamer
moved more rapidly until after a while
the captain and some passengers were
was the matter, and they found that
this was a maniac engineer and that he
was seated on the safety valve; and as they
came to him, he said: II nm commits.
stoned of satan to drive this steamer tc
HE'LL" and he fourished his pistol, and
would not come down. But after a while,
through some stratagem, he was brought
from his position, and the lives of the pas
sengers were saved. Oh! my friends, tina,
steamer had no such peril as our institu-
tons are threatened with, if the ignorant
and unrestrained children of this land shall
come up in their ignorance and their crime
to engineer our civil and religious institu-
tons, and drive them on the rocks. Edu-
cate this abandoned population, or they
will overthrow the institutions of this land.
Gather them into your Sabbath. schools. ]
congratulate you that many nave been
gathered. Go forth, teachers, in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the COM
ing Sabbaths may there be found gathered
scores and hundreds of these wanderers,
and instead of 1900 in the Sabbath school,
we shall see 5000 r 1900, and the grace
of God will come down upon them, and
the Holy Spirit will bring them all into the
truth.
Another characteristic of O live church is
one with appropriate architecture. In the
far West and amid destitute population, q
log church is very appropriate-the people
living in log houses. But in communities
where people live in comfortable abodes, q
church uncommodious or lacking in beauty
is a moral nuisance. Because Christ wal
born in a manager is no reason why we
should worship him in a barn. Let the
churches of Jesus Christ be not only com
Portable, but ornate. Years ago we re.
solved to have q comfortable church. We
resolved that it should be a%mphitheatrical
in shape. The prominent architects of the
country, after figuring on the matter a good
while, said that such a church would no
be churchly, and they would have nothing
to do with the enterprise. But after q
while we found an architect willing 10 risk
his reputation. He put up for us the frs,
tabernacle, in amphitheatrical style. We
liked it. All who came liked it. This
building followed in the same style. We
believe it is appropriate and adapted. An
angular church will have an angular The
ology. The church of Jesus Christ ought
to be q great family cilcle, the pulpit only
the fireplace, around which they are
/ Oafharo6 in curaof o~1 lo,,, 49,.